Chinese Get Chances to Invest in Vietnam Despite Political Rifts

Vietnam is gradually offering the eager Chinese new places to invest, from real estate to factory production, despite its history of resisting China over political issues. Chinese investors are buying property in the financial center, Ho Chi Minh City, and may get a chance from next year to lease land for up to 99 years in three special economic zones. A bill to open those zones is due for legislative action in early 2019 after being called off twice this year due to public protests. Pressure on Chinese firms from rising U.S. tariffs is pushing some into Vietnam, which Washington does not see as a trade rival. Then there’s China’s Belt-and-Road program for giving grants and other aid for infrastructure around Eurasia. A lot of Vietnamese, while still wary of China politically, will accept Chinese investment if it helps their sector of the domestic economy, analysts in Ho Chi Minh City expect. “I think we have to look at it from many angles,” said Trung Nguyen, international relations dean at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities. “Businesses maybe they welcome the money especially in real estate, because they can welcome it like one channel of financing into the market and they can create a lot of jobs in many sectors,” he said. “But on the other hand, they also create a crowding-out effect and we drive out many small businesses out the market.” Old baggage, new opportunities Vietnamese resent China over territorial disputes going back centuries, including a border war in the 1970s and an ongoing maritime sovereignty spat over tracts of the resource-rich South China Sea. Thousands rioted in 2014 against Chinese-owned businesses after a flare-up in the maritime spat. But the Southeast Asian country already counts China as a chief supplier of raw materials for... If you wish to read this full breaking news headline, plus more articles from around Thailand and Asia like, Chinese Get Chances to Invest in Vietnam Despite Political Rifts, simply click on
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